Monthly Archives: April 2014

District 9 had a very strong human and alien relationship theme. This movie takes place in Johannesburg South Africa which has a very long history of apartheid. Wikus van de Merwe is displayed as a weak man with a careless attitude toward the prawns. He is displayed as a caring man when it comes to his wife only. However later on after his fate changes and he begins to undergo his physical transformation, he also begins to change his perspective toward the prawns all leading up to the moment where he was willing to sacrifice his life to save father prawn and get them to the ship. This film is not like the traditional alien films because the prawns are not coming to invade, they actually are stuck and are the victims of human cruelty showing a correlation to the racial tensions in South African history. These prawns are clustered together in horrible conditions and are forced to fend for themselves while being isolated from the world. Wikus begins to see the error of his ways after he begins to taste the cruelty of the humans he was a part of. This movie is shown through Wikus’s perspective and shows his mental and physical transformation.in which he displays heroic qualities toward the last couple of scenes showing his ability to change.

The Movie District 9 had a few similarities with some of the books we read in class. One of the similarities it had to Caves of Steel was the fact that the aliens from the movie had their own place to stay, the same with the spacers. Humans and the aliens from the movie didn’t get along well with one another the same as how they didn’t get along with the spacers in the book. It took one man named Wikus van de Merwe when he was becoming an alien due to exposure to an alien substance to understand the way humans were treating the aliens and actually grew to accept them and let them live their lives in peace. Elijah from Caves of Steel also grew to accept spacers when he was partnered up with Olivaw and grew to understand Olivaw better. The movie can also be compared with the book Dawn. In the book, the only way to travel to different rooms is if you were an Oankali. In the movie: District 9, the only way to use an alien weapon was if you too were an alien. Lilith from Dawn and Wikus from District 9 were turning into one of the creatures slowly, and they were able to use anything the aliens had with ease. In some ways the movie also had some similarities to the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep as well. In the book, the bounty hunters were getting rid of the androids that were coming in from another planet. In the movie, there were soldiers who wanted to eradicate the aliens. Lastly, there was one character by the name of Rick Deckard from the book who started to grow to accept androids.

opening paragraph / thesis
In this paper, I will argue that
* it should be not overly general
* it should mention the texts you will examining
* ask the “so what?” question and push the thesis one step further

A truly awkward event in to novel Dawn was when Jdahya performed the Onokali mating ritual on both Lilith and Joseph for the first time.

It was Joseph’s second time of ever seeing the alien creature. Jdahya presented itself to Joseph so he could get use to Jdahya’s grotesque appearance. At this point Jdahya’s goal was to get Joseph to trust it enough to change and improve his body chemistry. In order to do so, Jdahya had to drug him which made him semi-unconscious.

During Joseph’s semi-unconscious state, for some odd reason Jdahya thought it was okay to perform the trio mating ritual with Lilith and Joseph without Joseph’s consent. Lilith was okay with it since she had already performed this alone with Jdahya, but imagine the awkwardness Joseph must of felt when Jdahya’s sexual organs penetrated his skin. First of all this mating ritual involves 3 sexes instead of the usual human 2. Second, the emotional feelings Joseph was receiving were unnatural to humans. Third, this is Joseph’s second time of ever seeing the alien. He doesn’t even know Jdahya well enough to even consider this ritual as a possibility. In a way it seemed almost as it were rape from my perspective.

After reading the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Philip K. Dick. I think that sometimes robot/machine are more moral and ethical than human beings. In the story where all the humans dream to have a real animal not just because they loves animal but to show their kindness and wealthiness. Robot sometimes have a cleaner mind than human beings, and for many times human do things for greedy reasons, so i disagree that robot are coldblooded.

In-Class Writing:
Reflect on one of the following themes in Octavia Butler’s Dawn:

Time

Memory

Birth

Time
— Oankali understanding of time vs. Lilith understanding of time
O: have a grand scheme — don’t know how long i will take
— patience — much more than humans
— time = elusive
— no real sense of time
— being on ship — lose track of 24 hour day/night cycle
L: her own lifetime

–> dislocation from time

why do they seem to have an infinite amount of time?
— different life span?

— Oankali destroying ruins
oankali want to control future of humankind, which means controlling the past
–destroying ruins, destroying human culture in general
why do we want to save animals from extinction? how do we do it?
— guilt
— ecosystems — adaptations/change

why destroy our ruins?
— maybe not trying to dominate us, but trying to free us from obsession with cultivating our own traditions/past models — b/c those traditions/models brought you to another end
— cf. intelligence + hierarchical

Self interest/preservation as a central part of species survival
— cf. conserve rain forests b/c we don’t know everything about them yet — save both for earth and for planet. but if big pharma gets

— memory — in the sense of lived experiences
—- altered memories — things that the Oankali have induced humans to forget
— memory — in the sense of a past
— memory — in a kind of mechanical sense — cf. clones/prints

“Your children will know us, Lilith. You never will.” – Kahguyaht (Page 111)

When Kahguyaht said “you never will” It is implying that Lilith will never truly understand the Onakali (aliens) both physically nor mentally. Lilith does not have the sensory organs which the aliens posses. Their organs let them experience unimaginable sensations which we would never be able to experience nor understand. In a way it’s as trying to envision the 4th dimension. The 4th dimension is not something you can see, hear or touch. It is a something we cannot experience because we are bounded to own 3 dimension body and world. Scientist have an idea of what this phenomena is but, no one could truly understand the 4th dimension.

When it stated ” Your children will know us” it is implying that Lilith’s children will be genetically tampered with which will allow them to have sensory organs that are similar to the aliens. This is foreshadowing what will be of humans in the future. They will be a hybrid creature with traits of both alien and human. In a sense, the pureness of a human will be lost. When Kahguyaht stated this, Lilith said nothin. She has accepted her people’s faith and is no longer going against the aliens. Then again she never had a choice. It’s either agree with the aliens or be but back into suspended animation until she agrees.

Throughout the entire novel, humans never had to option to leave to Earth without being experimented on and genetically altered first. The Onakali believe that tampering with the humans will increase their chance for survival. The Onakali’s intensions are positive, but in doing so, it ripped the freedom right out of humanity.

“And you don’t understand us at all. You never will, really, though you’ll be given much more information about us.”

“Then put me back to sleep, dammit, and choose some-one you think is brighter! I never wanted this job!”

It was silent for several seconds. Finally, it said “Do you really believe I was disparaging your intelligence?”

She glared at it, refusing to answer. “I thought not. Your children will know us, Lilith. You never will. (Family II, The end of Chapter 12.)

I think this passage is very important because it shows that Lilith has no control of what the aliens to her. It also shows the aliens intentions to harvest a human for their own. This passage also shows how resilient Lilith is towards the aliens that she will not give in to their demands even though she clearly has no say. This passage is right after Paul tried to have her way with her she defends him, Lilith is full of empathy. The aliens clearly don’t care about her but have a purpose for her.

“And you don’t understand us at all, you never will really …” (creature)

This is a great part from the end of Part Two because it just gets down to the truth of the matter.Lilith is a “fish out of water”.The Oankali have been studying the humans for hundreds of years by this point and have gained enough knowledge to have the upper hand at this point.They already have the upper hand with Lilith, as she is a captive.For Lilith to insinuate that they know nothing about humans after all this time is a direct result of why the creature essentially demeans Lilith and states an even bigger fact that she knows nothing.She has been out for hundreds of years and has no knowledge to what may or may not be going on, on Earth; let alone the ship that they are on.The Oankali rules Lilith and have plans for the future.A future that she may or may not be a part of depending on how she takes to the Oankali and their way of life.The creature lowers her down a level and puts her in her place as the captive she truly is.

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.